It is well known that the surface charge on a photoconductor can be dissipated by ionizing radiations--as, for example, radiation by X-rays. Since a latent electrostatic image on a photoconductor can be rapidly developed, it could be of considerable importance during surgical procedures. Unfortunately, the length of exposure time necessary for obtaining a xeroradiograph is too long, so that its use has been centered chiefly on mammography. Since exposure to ionizing radiations can have deleterious effects, efforts have been made to decrease exposure time in all applications, including the use of silver halide film. In xeroradiography, the phenomenon of edge enhancement improves mammographic image detail over conventional film imaging, owing to the fact that it emphasizes the border characteristics of masses.
In the exposure of, say, a fractured tibia, using a rapid medical silver halide film, an exposure of ten mas (milliampere seconds) with a voltage of fifty-eight kvp (kilovolts, peak) would be used. Efforts are constantly being made to enable the use of xeroradiography with the application of a reduction in the time of exposure of a patient to ionizing radiations for a given required kvp.